He was just Sixteen
by Anrheithwyr
Summary: Do no let them die in vain. Do not let him have died in vain.


_**Written for the 'Color Competition' by Empress Empoleon for the category 'white, positive' (write about someone innocent who was killed during the war). Don't own HP. Cried while writing this. **_

….

He looked around at the students, the young students, who sat around him. They were Fifth and Sixth Years, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old.

"_My brother was sixteen years old when he died. Let me repeat myself: My brother was sixteen years old when he died. He had just a month until his seventeenth, and he never even got to celebrate it. His name was Colin Creevey, and he was a Sixth Year Gryffindor. I was fifteen and a few months old at the time-old enough to understand that when someone dies, they _aren't _coming back. Yet, I was young enough to be irrational about the whole situation. Young enough to cry and want to throw things and make everyone else feel the same pain that _I _did. Because my brother was sixteen and he was dead. _

_The last thing Colin ever said to me was just one word: "Run". "Run.". That was it-the last thing I ever heard from his lips, and it was advice. It was words of protection, because my brother would always protect me, even if it meant hurting himself. I can still remember the way he looked, the fact that he hadn't had a haircut in ages, the way his blue eyes seemed worn out, his smile strained. He was sixteen-under age and not supposed to be there. But I was just over fifteen years old and foolish, so my brother walked me to the entrance to Hogsmeade and watched me leave. _

"_Run."-the last thing I ever heard from him. And the next time I saw him, he was just another body under a sheet. Just another corpse, another victim. Just another name that would be inscribed onto a plaque of hundreds of names. He wasn't really important in the long run-just another body, after all. Just one more, except for me. To me, he was my brother. My only brother. _

_My brother and I were Muggleborns. It was the biggest surprise for all of us when Colin received his letter, and I remember being so jealous. _I _wanted that letter-_I _wanted to go to Hogwarts and learn with my big brother. We didn't speak until Christmas break because I called him a mean jerk for leaving me. It broke my heart, because we'd never been apart. I was only a year and a half younger than him, I had followed him around everywhere, and suddenly there was this place that _he _got to go and _I _couldn't. Of course, I did eventually get my letter and I did eventually get to follow my brother around everywhere throughout the school, but that first few months, I hated him like never before. _

_My brother was brave. He was a Gryffindor, of course he was brave. It was a _part _of being a Gryffindor. But he was also innocent. All he wanted to do that night was protect his little brother and all the other Muggleborn kids. All he wanted to do was make a difference, and he died for that same reason. _

_And I miss him. I'm thirty years old today, far older than I could even fathom at fifteen. When I was fifteen, I thought that I would be over at my brother's every day, living our crazy bachelor lives. But instead, he's dead and I have a life, a job. I have a wife and two girls and three boys. My eldest son is named Colin-he's ten years old. Even today, he knows he is named after his uncle, who was a hero. He knows that his uncle died for a very important cause, though he's not quite aware _what_. _

_My brother was sixteen when he died. Sixteen. That's way too young for anyone to die. My brother didn't deserve to die-he just didn't. But the thing is, Colin is gone. I can't get him back. However, every time I tell this story, I feel like Colin is here with me, helping me tell you his story. Helping me help _you _understand that he did not die in vain. _

_That no one that night died in vain. Do not let their deaths be worth nothing. Please, if only for this one story, this one name-do not let their deaths be for nothing but another test for you to study for. I am begging you."_


End file.
